Funny, since I've always wanted to try surfing, but am terrified by the wave beatdowns and hold downs i've seen!

Theres a system called "Rapid Air" that is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, that fits into your life jacket front pocket. You can take like 3 or 4 extra breaths off of it if you get stuck underwater and can't afford to pull and swim. Steve Fischer and his crew used it when they paddled the Inga Rapids on the Congo River where getting held underwater by whirlpools on the eddy lines was a real concern, and they saved Steve's life after he got held underwater by one for over a minute and was forced to swim. Benny Marr, the paddler in this video was on that trip as well!

Know exactly which one you're talking about! The beatdown and swim on Sweetwater right? Yeah that one was insane...

It's not me in the video unfortunately, wish it was, but can't take credit for Benny Marr's run! I reached out to him to get permission to post his run on KZbin since it was only on Facebook, and turns out this was back from when he was really young. He's improved a shitload since then, which is hard to believe since he's amazing in this footage already... Tumwater is one of my dream runs, I'll be out there someday, maybe not at this level, but I've gotta try it! This run down Exit was right over the 10,000 cfs mark if I remember correctly

You actually were calm and composed enough during a beatdown to hypothesize that blowing air into your drysuit would give you the buoyancy you needed to get out of the hole, and then actually put the plan into effect and attempt it? Dude... I'll paddle with you anyday.

I'd love to dude! Only have done Valley Falls so far, would be thrilled to get to paddle the rest of it!

@@tankmaster1018 I love the ledges section of the Tellico. Amazing drops without huge consequences! What's better than buttery waterfalls?

I promise it's alot better now! Haha this was a couple of years ago. I'll still miss them once in awhile, but usually manage to get up on my first roll attempt these days. Thanks for watching!

He didn't swim it was not learned the hard way.

Hey, it's Mike's birthday tomorrow, and we're meeting at 10:30 in Hendricks for a Dry Fork run. Wanna join?

Just got a 2nd lap on it 2 weeks ago at exactly the level you mentioned in the comments here. I remember you saying you wanted me to run it around 2 feet lower then in my 6.2 foot lap I posted awhile back, and I caught it at 4.2 feet, which is exactly the level you recommended if I remember correctly. Was totally awesome, and would have easily exceeded the 6.2 foot run I posted here if it wasn't for the massive blizzard that unleashed hell as soon as we made it down to the Otter Creek confluence... I still totally understand why you prefer it around 4 rather than 6+ feet. I'm a nut for big water, so that 6.2 foot run felt like one of my home rivers (Shenendoah and Potomac) but it was objectively a way more challenging and useful run for paddlers looking to take a last step up before paddling the Cheat Canyon for the first time. I know you left your original comment a month ago, and probably don't even remember me, but wanted to reach out since I caught it at the exact water level you told me that I had to try! Here's the video from that day: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJmTm52EorKZmsUsi=QgGYl6aHpVtVPXuW

You can say that again! It felt absolutely huge out there, but you can't get around the GoPro effect... Love the fisheye lens for the huge field of view, but the lens required to get that FOV also flattens out the image, and makes it impossible to get an idea of how big or steep anything actually is

It's Double Hydraulic on the Lower Yough

You're a fucking beast dude! That was a hell of a fight to get out of that hole, I just included the clip to justify my decision to walk Rattlesnake, because it's one of then more violent beatdowns I've seen, and I was freaked out about accidentally ending up in that hole at 6.8 when the next 2 ledges were just a few hundred feet downstream 😂 You see what Art did though? You can sneak it to the right above 5.5 feet and avoid the Lady Kenmore hole entirely, it's a really good chicken chute down the right where you just power over the curler, and avoid the hole like 15 feet to the river right. Next time we paddle this at high water, we can take that line since both Art and Colton just slipped right through the dangerous area, it's an excellent sneak where you avoid the hole, but still get to run the slide! According to Mike Moore though, once it goes over 7.5 then then you can boof off the left side of the ledge straight into the eddy, because the curler on the right starts to get nasty. Either way though, we've got to run this again together sometime dude. Missing the 6.4 paddle at cheat fest 2 years ago is still my biggest paddling regret. Anyways sorry to remind you of the swim, but I only included it because you're one of the best paddlers I know, and if you got hammered by something, then I really don't like my chances of avoiding the same beatdown 😬 Seriously hope to get to paddle it at this level one of these days with you man! Thanks for letting me use your clip!